Ancient Japanese Poetic Forms in the Scriptures

Old Testament

And he said, I am

Joseph your brother, whom ye

sold into Egypt.

Turn from thy fierce wrath,

and repent of this evil

against thy people.

can I hear any

more the voice of singing men

and singing women?

or wilt thou flee three

months before thine enemies,

while they pursue thee?

now advise, and see

what answer I shall return

to him that sent me.

how is Babylon

become a desolation

among the nations!

--------------

New Testament

And he said, Legion:

because many devils were

entered into him.

Now if any man

have not the Spirit of Christ,

he is none of his.

either a vine, figs?

so can no fountain both yield

salt water and fresh.

The old commandment

is the word which ye have heard

from the beginning.

I write unto you,

little children, because ye

have known the Father.

-----------------------

Book of Mormon

Yea, they may forget,

yet will I not forget thee,

O house of Israel.

I say unto you,

if ye are not ye are not

prepared to meet God.

And now when the king

had said these words, he was struck

as if he were dead.

But behold, I did

cry unto him and I did

find peace to my soul.

I say unto you,

Nay; not one whit. If so, God

would cease to be God.

And now I close mine

epistle to my beloved

brother, Moroni.

And behold, the time

is at hand, and this night shall

the sign be given.

I tried this just out of curiosity, but it could be considered a control experiment for Hebraisms in the Book of Mormon. I like how arranging the verses as Haiku brings out some parallelisms in the text that might otherwise have gone unnoticed. "If ye are not ye are not" sounds very Zen.